


Things to Get Used to in Night Vale: A List

by Zaniida



Series: Five Moments of Intimacy (Alt Fandoms) [10]
Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: 5MI, FMI, First Season (probably), Five Moments of Intimacy (Mild Inversion), Gen, List Fic, Typical Night Vale Weirdness, but all from the perspective of Carlos
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-07 15:55:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26590249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zaniida/pseuds/Zaniida
Summary: It's important to keep track of data in an orderly fashion.Especially when dealing with a disorderly set of data.
Series: Five Moments of Intimacy (Alt Fandoms) [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1626043
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8
Collections: August Intimacy - September Stragglers 2020





	1. Inside Cover (Vital Reminders)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [10moonymhrivertam](https://archiveofourown.org/users/10moonymhrivertam/gifts).



> I wanted to do some sort of Night Vale piece for the [August Intimacy](https://allbingo.dreamwidth.org/162885.html) event, but it just wasn't coming together in a timely manner. And the fic-style pieces weren't coming together at all. But the "make a list of Carlos's reaction to Night Vale weirdness" piece actually did start coming together, so here we are, in time for the [September Stragglers](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/FMI2020b) collection.
> 
>  **10moonymhrivertam** , you get this on account of our exchange on my other WtNV content. No idea if you have any particular interest in Carlos, or in list fics, but maybe it'll be interesting ^_^
> 
> As far as **Content Warnings:** I expect this to be almost exclusively "whatever weirdness was in the first few episodes of WtNV, called into focus with some additional questions about implications, or possible alternative explanations for the data points."
> 
> So if you're good with Night Vale weirdness, great. If you need an extensive set of trigger warnings for what may show up here, have a blog that already does that: [WTNV-Triggers](https://wtnv-triggers.tumblr.com/episodes); like I said, I expect this particular piece to stay well within the first season, quite possibly the _first half_ of the first season, although it'll jump around a bit and is more category-based than chronological. And since the fic is list-based, it's not gonna get very graphic about any of the details.
> 
> This is the extent of the content warnings; I don't feel the need to add them every chapter, not with the way this fic plays out.
> 
> P.S. Does anyone else find that AO3 is marking their fics as published the day after you're publishing them? I thought the switchover was, like, 9 p.m. (East Coast, compared to my midnight), but I published this before 7 p.m. and it still said September 22nd instead of September 21st. This is kinda annoying.

0\. Hiding my pens. Must not forget this.

00\. Not all book-shaped objects are books. Must learn to tell the difference.  
 _Possibly why the City Council is paranoid about books. Possibly not_.  
 _Still haven’t found a way to enter the library_.

000\. A lot of what Cecil says on the radio should not be taken at face value.  
 _I suppose that’s true of every radio program, actually. Not unique to Night Vale_.


	2. Section A: Common Experiences That Night Valeians Take for Granted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How much is weird and how much is just culturally unfamiliar?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Might come back to make notes later.

1\. Blue helicopters (secret police?) watching over the area.  
 _Does Night Vale have air-traffic controllers? Should look into this_.

2\. Hooded figure steals babies. People just let him do it.  
 _What does he do with the babies? Have any babies been recovered?_  
 _Is “baby” perhaps code for something else? pets? tech? a brand of car or bike?_

3\. Apartment etiquette.  
 _Rituals and experiments are not uncommon in apartment buildings_.  
 _Scientific experiments? Religious rituals? Need more data_.  
Note: _Cecil lives in an apartment building_ :)

4\. Boy Scouts.  
 _Who decides which boys get signed up? What age?_  
 _Can you refuse?_

5\. Citizens required to eat at Big Rico’s once a week.  
 _Failure to do so is a misdemeanor. Only citizens? what of travelers?_

6\. Classes can be taught via astral projection.  
 _Is astral projection a thing? Should look into this_.  
Reminder: _Science is about investigation, not preconceptions_.

7\. Dead interns get buried in the break room.  
 _Why is it so dangerous to work for a radio station?_  
 _Are there no laws about where you can and can’t bury a body?_

* * *

Question: Is it normal for the weather report to be given in triple-limerick format?  
Data Point: _Heard a sonnet one time. Next day there was a different weather announcer._

Question: Have the ad companies seen a correlation between bizarre ads and improved sales?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of the problems with this fic is that the "research" involves, basically, listening to old familiar episodes and taking notes on the various data points that Carlos would be interested in.
> 
> Which involves spending long periods of time listening to episodes, without being able to divert my attention to other tasks. And then getting caught up in the episode, forgetting to take notes, and having to backtrack. A lot.
> 
> In other words, it's a rather time-intensive "research process," and I'm not convinced that I'm catching even 70% of the data points that would pique Carlos's interest. But we'll go with what we have '^_^


End file.
